His Majesty's Ballerina

PART XIII -- Ghost of the Past

"Her past doesn't define her,"

"She must've has a perfect hoo-ha that makes a sensible man like you go crazy and lose your mind!" the Queen closed the door with a bang. She was enraged by Robert's stubbornness and how gullible he became when it comes to Kitty and her tricks.

Queen Miranda was always sure that she would never accepted Kitty into her family and she would do just about anything to prevent that girl ruining the monarchy and their good names that they have built for centuries.

The day will come when she has to give Robert a difficult choice but for now she took comfort in the fact that no one outside the palace knew about the engagement, there was still time to change Robert's mind and there was a chance that people should never know anything about Robert's engagement to Kitty at all.

A week after the engagement, Kitty was summoned to the Royal Ballet Company to meet with Mr. O'Hare, the director of the company. It certainly taken Kitty by a surprised. All the way to the Royal Opera House she was wondering what could be the matter with her summon.

Walking to the Royal Opera House has always been comforting for Kitty, the hallways was filled with memories and one person that she remembered the most was Brad. The memories of him still hurt her so much that she found herself with teary eyes but quickly wiped it off when she saw Clarissa walked towards her.

"Hello, dirty cat," said Clarissa stood face to face with Kitty.

"Hello, miss piggy, aren't you supposed to go somewhere?" asked Kitty unpleasantly.

"What's news from you? I haven't seen you lately. Were you crawled up in a corner somewhere and brooding on your misery of losing to me all the time?" Clarissa looked at Kitty from head to toe in the condescending manner and stop dead at the sight of engagement ring on Kitty's ring finger.

"What?" Kitty tried to hide her hand in her back.

Robert and she had agreed to keep the engagement to themselves for now but she could see that Clarissa had picked up the meaning of the ring.

"Should I congratulate you?" asked Clarissa.

"I don't understand," replied Kitty playing innocent.

"Kitty, what are you doing? You think by getting engage with a prince will make everything easier for you? It's not! It will ruin your career, I can assure you! You'll see, doors would be slam shut in your face! You will have no more career, your days as ballerina would be over!"

"You're just jealous, Clarissa! You coming from a wealthy family but I'm the one who's engaged to the Prince, the future king of England. You're a spiteful girl!" Kitty said angrily and left Clarissa stood frozen with disappointment.

Clarissa has hide her true feeling all this time and people had thought the worst of her. When she gave advice, she sounded like she was being bossy and people hated her for that. When she shared about her fun holiday, she sounded like she was bragging and people hated her for that. When she cared about the other dancers, she sounded nosey and a miss-know-it-all that people hated her for that. Her grandmother once told her;

"Clarissa my dearest, if you want someone to get your message, you don't need to shout it. All you have to do is talk calmly and they will sure get the message."
But Clarissa never could say what she meant calmly. She said something and people translated it with another because of the way she said it that bugs people off.

Like now, she was so disappointed of Kitty not because she was jealous of her engagement but because she cared deeply about Kitty. She secretly enjoyed the time when they were competing against each other. She enjoyed talking to Kitty even though their conversation always ended in a fight.

Clarissa always knew that Kitty was a talented dancer and sometimes afraid of her talent but she also knew that once a dancer got engaged to a fellow outside the ballet community, their career is over. Over the times when Kitty lose focused, Clarissa had been afraid of her rival's future in ballet and now that she has engaged, it sadden Clarissa. Such a talent went to waste.

"Be seated, Miss James," said Mr. O'Hare when Kitty opened the door to his office.

"I understand you wanted to see me, Mr. O'Hare?"

"Miss James, I have studied your attendance report and find it very disappointing. I see that you have taken temporary leave for four months this last year alone and you have seldom attending class and practice lately. In other words, your productivity has decreased to such state that I have to question your use to the royal ballet company as the principal ballerina. You understand, Miss James that there are a lot of other dancers out there who would love to be in your place and would've given so much to the company more than you are giving us now. I'm sorry, Miss James but I have to terminate your contract with the company,"

"You're firing me? I'm fired?" Kitty held back tears as her world crumbled to her feet.